Re: inCider's "Top 40 Games of All Time"

[volk@seas.smu.edu (Andrew R. Volk)]

In article <2mslfk$3lv@b8.b8.ingr.com> rwmlodoc@ingr.com (Rich Mlodoch) writes:
>In article <2msdlo$89o@nedata.reston.ingr.com> wsgentry@nedata.reston.ingr.com (W. Scott Gentry) writes:
>>rdippold@qualcomm.com (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold) writes:
>>
>>>Wizardry had one of the nastiest @#$! copy protection schemes around.
>>>It _could_ be copied with sync bitcopy (Tracks $11-$14 if I remember
>>>right), but it took lots of time, fiddling and drives that were
>>>running at the right speeds.  A real pain, because with the use the
>>>disks got a backup copy was a must.
>>
>>If memory serves, there were several versions of Locksmith that could copy
>>the disk.  Just an FYI.  There were also several character editors available
>>but I don't know if the copy protection scheme was used for character data.
>>I mention this because an old friend of mine, Rich Mlodoch (hi!) wrote one.
>
>I copied it using Copy ][ plus (I don't remember which version). My Character
>editor edited the chacters on the backup disk (A DOS 3.3 format disk).Iremember
>the hours I spent pouring over the printout from a dump of those disks to
>figure out what each bit and byte did. I also wrote a character editor for
>some of the Ultimas. Lord British and Robert Woodhead were none too pleased
>when told of my programs when they visited a computer club I frequented. It
>seems that commoners such as myself didn't understand the balance and fine
>tuning required to make the Worlds artists such as the aforementioned created
>perfect. I told Lord British (Can't remember his real name) that his games took
>too damn long to play and that I didn't have the 4-5 hours a night for three to
>six weeks it took to play it out, fighting encounter after encounter after
>encounter just to rack up the levels needed to move on in the game.

And in Ultima VI, there was a hidden built-in character editor! Hmmmmm...


-- 
Andrew R. Volk                | 'finger -l' for PGP 2.3 Public Key
Southern Methodist University | Apple II Forever!
volk@seas.smu.edu             | (or: volk@cco.caltech.edu)